Charlemagne (Karolus Magnus, Charles the Great, Karl der
Große)

King of the Franks, 768-814.
King of the Langobards, 774-814.
Emperor, 800-814.

Known as Charles (Latin Carolus, Karolus)
during his own life, the form "Charlemagne" by which he
is commonly known in English and French does not appear until the
beginning of the twelfth century [See Settipani (1993), 191, n.
2]. On 9 October 768, shortly after the death of his father, king
Pépin, he was named as joint king of the Franks along with his
brother Carloman ["..., et rex Pippinus defunctus est in
8. Cal. Octobr. et Karlus et Karlomannus ad reges uncti sunt 7
Id. Octobris" Ann. S. Amandi, s.a. 768, MGH SS
1: 12; similarly in Annales Petaviani,
s.a. 768, MGH SS 1: 13], and he reunited his father's
possessions after Carloman's death on 4 December 771 [Annales Sancti Amandi, s.a. 771, MGH SS 1: 12].
In 774, he became king of the Langobards after the capture of
king Desiderius and his wife and daughter [Annales
Sancti Amandi, s.a. 774, MGH SS 1: 12; Annales
Laubacensis, s.a. 774, MGH SS 1: 13], a kingdom which
included northern Italy (but not southern Italy). On 25 December
800, Charles was crowned as Emperor by the Pope, becoming the
first emperor in the west since the fifth century ["Ipsa die sacratissima natalis Domini, cum rex ad
missam ante confessionem beati Petri apostoli ab oratione
surgeret, Leo papa coronam capiti eius imposuit, et a cuncto
Romanorum populo adclamatum est: 'Carolo augusto, a Deo coronato
magno et pacifico imperatori Romanorum, vita et victoria!' Et
post laudes ab apostolico more antiquorum principum adoratus est
atque ablato patricii nomine imperator et augustus est
appellatus." ARF, s.a. 801, 112; the
year begins on Christmas in these annals, which is why the event
appears under the year 801 in the reckoning of the annals]. With
his two elder sons, Charles and Pépin, having predeceased him,
he was succeeded by his third son Louis ("the Pious"),
who succeeded to all but (northern) Italy, which had already been
given given to Pépin's son Bernard.

Date of Birth: Probably 2 April 748.
The date of 2 April comes from a Lorsch calendar ["IIII.
Non. Apr. Nativitatis domni et gloriosissimi Karoli imperatoris
et semper Augusti." Becher (1992), 37, n. 5, quoting
Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Philipps 1869]. Based on the statement
by the annalist Einhard that he was aged about 71 at his death,
many have given the date of his birth as 2 April 742, but this
would place the birth of Charles prior to the marriage of his
parents in 744. The year is given as 747 in Annales Petaviani
["Et ipso anno fuit natus Karolus rex." Annales
Petaviani, s.a. 747, MGH SS 1: 11]. One reason which has
been given for placing the birth later than 747 is the
immediately preceding entry in Annales Petaviani, which
records the pilgrimage of Charlemagne's uncle king Carloman to
Rome ["Karolomannus migravit Romam." ibid.].
Now, it is known that Carloman's departure for Rome could not
have taken place before 15 August 747, because he appears in a
document of that date for the monastery of Stavelot-Malmédy
[Becher (1992), 38]. Thus, if the annals describe the events in
the correct order, then Charlemagne had to be born after 15
August 747. Since the annal for the birth of Charles is obviously
not contemporary (it refers to him as rex), the order of
the events cannot necessarily be assumed from the order that they
appear in the annals. However, there is a very good reason for
concluding that Charlemagne was not born on 2 April 747:
As pointed out by Becher, that date was as Easter Sunday, and it
is virtually unthinkable that Charlemagne could have been born on
an Easter Sunday without that fact being widely noted in
contemporary sources [Becher (1992), 41]. Becher also noted that
if Easter were being used as the beginning of the year, then 2
April 748 would fall under the year 747 (because Easter 748 was
on 21 April). [See Becher (1992) for further detailed discussion]Place of Birth: Unknown.

(2) m. 1 May 770 × 30 April
772, Hildegarde, d. in Saxony, 30 April 783,
daughter of count Gerold, and a descendant of the Alamannian duke Gottfried. For the date of the marriage, see the page of Hildegarde.

Children of
Charlemagne:
In addition to numerous sources which give additional details,
there are two contemporary sources which provide detailed
outlines of Charlemgane's family. The earlier one, a history of
the bishops of Metz by Paul Warnefrid (better known as Paul the
Deacon), was written ca. 784, not long after the death of
Charlemagne's wife Hildegard and his marriage to Fastrada.
Charlemage's biographer Einhard, writing shortly after the
emperor's death, provides later details for the family (but omits
the three children of Charles and Hildegarde who died as
infants).

Berthe, b. 779×780, d. after 14 Jan.
823, mistress of Angilbert, d. 18 Feb. 814,
abbot of Saint-Riquier.She was mother of the historian Nithard:
"... Qui [i.e., Angilbert] ex eiusdem magni
regis filia nomine Berchta, Harnidum, fratrem meum, et me
Nithardum genuit." [Nithard iv, 5, MGH SS 2: 671] The
title of "count of Ponthieu" given to Angilbert by some
secondary sources is anachronistic, and there is no justification
for the later genealogies which would make Angilbert and Berthe
the ancestors of the later counts of Ponthieu.

Bibliography

ARF = Georg Pertz & Friedrich
Kurze, Annales Regni Francorum (Annals of the kingdom of
the Franks), MGH SRG 6 (Hannover, 1895), a collective name
commonly given to two closely related sets of annals, Annales
Laurissenses Maiores and the so-called Einhardi Annales
(Annals of Einhard), in parallel on alternate pages until the
coronation of Charlemagne in 800 (s.a. 801).